I am a white heterosexual male-bodied person, in the bracket of age between 18 and 50. I am the pure essence of the privileged (not economically, I am mid-low class, but yes, I am socially privileged)
But I don’t feel like a patriarch, the ones who decides, I feel more like the ones who obeys, victims too.

There is obvious difference between a servant and a slave, don’t worry. I can’t compare our pain with your pain (so Xanthë, close your gas gallon XD) but I want to explain ours, not asking for empathy but understanding, an understanding than can empower all of us.

I am trying to say… Is not the pain of a privileged one (lol, as if that exist) is the pain of a awaken one, trying to change his ways. I think myself as an awaken... Not fully, I am new with this, but awaken. My life is changing in a slow pace and I am seeing things. I have a strange life because I am atheist and I work as secretary in a catholical church (Yup, is hipocrytal, if you can give me a better job with the crisis beating down my country I take it gladly). In this job, working for the “blueprints of Patriarchy” I have seen strange things. First, with the dichotomy of the woman role in life (be pure and obedient as Mary or be a sinner-man-corrupting as Eve) I can’t understand how can it be that the entire baptism request (I am talking about all, not a 99% but ALL) comes from women. Women that want to raise her daughters in a faith that transfigure them in solid-rock-statues of pureness or shameful sinners.

I live in a country of VERY chauvinist males (as most of the countries under the catholic influence, btw) and in the last days I’ve learned to keep my mouth closed about some themes. Not with the priest or their flanders (again, I am a hypocrite) but with old friends, atheists as me… we can’t talk with them about transgenderism or gender fluid persons without receiving looks of “man, are you crazy?” Or “*gasp* trying to say me anything? Because I AM HETEROSEXUAAAAAAL!!!!” (I remembered then the first patriarchal film and laughed). Damn, I can’t talk about this with my girlfriend and we are marring next Thursday.

Marrying by the civil way, working in a church. I REALLY have a strange life xD

I am trying to say, I have a long way to walk to be fully awaken, to treat the others with the respect that I falsely supposed they had, and I have very few supports. Is NOT an easy fight, but is easy to fight when you are the Oppressed… Is hard to fight when the sin runs within your mind, when half the time you are fighting against yourself. Again, I don’t want empathy, I want understanding, you are the true oppressed, I don’t forget it.

Now that I’ve bored you to submission, suggestions to Mr. Ishida:

1) May you introduce a character of a woman that is not awaken and don’t want to be? Not a devil girl, but a woman that… wait, we have them now, the devil girls… daaaamn… But... I think more about a Seymour-female-thingy... @.@

2) Could Slick start to be awake? Develop himself as a less dick-ish man? We have seem glimpses of him in this way, but they were too ephemeral. And what is the matter with the devil slick? I really don’t understand that @.@ Help here?

3) We have mentioned talked about Xanthe (the comic character, no the forum persona), how he needs more development, see other faces from her… I suggest a thing I’ve seen… May Mr. Ishida portrait the exhaustion of her fight against the Big-D? How she, sometimes, is tired out, her sadness and feelings about an endless war, when sometimes weeks passes and not much or less changes… And then, her sisters, or old Nana comforts her or a good book or…

I say, what does Xanthe when the world is too heavy for her trike? Can knowing this help her to be rounder?

Again, sorry for the grammar._________________Be mellow
Be compassionate

Thanks for writing this, I appreciate the amount of thought you put into it. Your grammar isn't that bad, you're totally understandable.* I can only imagine living with questions or problems and not having anyone who understood, especially if it meant everyone around you acted in a way that might seem unethical at times.

* Plus, sometimes non-native speakers make me think about the way we speak, like when you refer to helping Xanthe "to be rounder." We would call someone's character flat but not round, and I don't know why._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

* Plus, sometimes non-native speakers make me think about the way we speak, like when you refer to helping Xanthe "to be rounder." We would call someone's character flat but not round, and I don't know why.

I've heard people call a character 'well-rounded'._________________butts

True. I visualize those differently, but they're definitely the same idea. I stand corrected. _________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

Arkhron: First I will say you are full of good ideas and intentions and your mind seems open to accepting change and realizing many of the harsher truths of the world.

I can not give an exact amount, but I would guess around 60-80% of the atheist I know were raised Catholic. The more I have learned about that church over the years, the more I have come to understand why that is so.

Many, many, many of us have woken up one day and realized "Holy shit! A lot of my family and friends are actually bigots, racists, or some other type of small minded person." I do not think this is ever really a pleasant experience for anyone. I have learned that this is a reason why many people separate themselves form their friends and family, especially after university.

There is one thing that bothers me about your post: the fact that you can't talk about this stuff with the woman you are going to marry. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I think it may cause you more problems later on in your relationship._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

Well, I am spanish and she is mexican, so I can say that she was more chauvinist than me even before sinfest did this turn.

I dont worry about that, she is smarter than me (one of the things that I love) so I will send a link to the archives, maybe reading since 2011 or so and let the magic happen

I am more concerned about her parents, closed minded as hell about the role of the woman in society and the binary genderism. But meh... I often repeat my self "chill out, dont have to listen them all your life... only their life"

And the thing that really bothers me is how are we going to raise our kids... But for that (I hope) we have five or six years still, so I try to keep calm and dont panic XD_________________Be mellow
Be compassionate

Good attitude to have. As someone who comes from a conservative family, I can really relate. My father was raised Catholic and my mother Luthern (specifically Missouri Synod, a VERY conservative sect) and for a good portion of my childhood I was actively encouraged to pursue a career as a member of the clergy. If I've learned one thing, it's honestly better to avoid confrontation then trying to persuade your family to understand why you've adopted different views then their own. I remember trying to explain to my mother I was agnostic and not going to baptize my children, ever, I think I could visibly see the effects of something in her brain short circuiting.

Honestly, I don't know if the comic is the best place to start. They may see the name 'Sinfest' and immediately have a VERY sever and negative reaction to that alone, especially since Slick sells his soul in the first strip._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

Last edited by Darqcyde on Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:49 pm; edited 1 time in total

* Plus, sometimes non-native speakers make me think about the way we speak, like when you refer to helping Xanthe "to be rounder." We would call someone's character flat but not round, and I don't know why.

Weird, we used it all the time in highschool English classes, along with stock and dynamic characters._________________Whatever happened to the heroes?

I agree with a lot of what you've posted, Arkhron. Thank you for taking the time to vocalize these thoughts!

It would be really wonderful to start seeing a deeper view of the feminism issue in the strip, maybe going into more depth about how it affects both genders. That would help avoid some of the knee-jerk polarization that the "feminist" word brings up._________________Live to laugh.

Joined: 09 Jul 2006Posts: 9702Location: I have to be somewhere? ::runs around frantically::

Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 5:09 am Post subject:

So you are telling me that I need to actually look and post at the comic subforum from time to time?_________________Before God created Las he pondered on all the aspects a woman might have, he considered which ones would look good super-inflated and which ones to leave alone.
After much deliberation he gave her a giant comfort zone. - Michael

i seem to be in a weird mood today. my first thought on reading your initial post, Arkhron, is that you should use your position as church secretary to undermine the patriarchal power system (start by paying the nuns more). but then i realized that's a bit unfair.

i seemed to be a privileged woman from a feminist perspective (e.g., my mother had a career predating her marriage and it never seemed to bother my father in the least; he always made it clear that his aspirations for me were based on my intelligence; i never got pressure from either parent to get married and have kids) - so i don't really know how to advise you. i imagine that sinfest is one thing to give you a place to start a discussion. 18-50 is a pretty wide age range - does she have a job? is she career-minded? some women don't appreciate feminism until the need for it impacts them personally, but i don't know how much life experience she has.

but good for you, for being on the side of the angels! (metaphorically). and congratulations on your impending marriage!

what do you mean, they don't pay the nuns?_________________aka: neverscared!

Thanks so much for writing this and sharing your story with us! I really do appreciate how thoughtful it was, and how you're trying to become more aware of things. A good place to look might be Jim C. Hines's blog, where he writes about sexism from time to time.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Edit: I agree completely and would love to see more depth to Xanthe and Slick. I liked him better when he wore a fuzzy sweater and tried to make romantic gestures.